May 07, 2014

And...We're Back!

So. That took a bit longer than expected. Being busy with things like chaperoning middle school trips to our nation's capitol and what not, I wasn't super on top of what was happening with the whole Typepad fiasco. But when the blog was still down this morning when I tried to post, I finally decided I should email and complain a bit. And, what do you know... It's back up!

I'd been wanting to share a bit about my new spring garden and have been meaning to get in here to do it for the last few weeks, but I think we all know that my appearances here are sporadic right now. Dawn and I have been working away on the book, on posts for Mud Puddles to Meteors, and then there is all the full-time job and parenting stuff to be on top of too. But we did manage to get a garden going in our new backyard, which I am very pleased with.

The raised beds that we built are very basic; just some 2 x 6 lumber cut to the proper length and held together with wood screws. We had a truckload of soil delivered to the yard on a weekday afternoon a couple of Thursdays back, and then spent part of the following weekend moving it into the beds.

I picked up some onion sets from a local produce market and started out by planting about two-thirds of them. I gave the rest to a neighbor, who has a garden bed just on the other side of our fence. Our house is on a very busy street in an urban neigborhood, with buses and other traffic going by in a steady stream pretty much around the clock. But you almost wouldn't know that from the state of affairs out back. Our yard has a short chain link fence on three sides, and on two of those sides there are neighbors with gardens as well. The guy to the side has a flock of chickens and is a professional bee keeper (raising queens for sale) with a couple of hives in the yard. To the back is an older Greek couple with a garden just a few feet from our own. In the evenings, we often stand in the yard and chat with the neighbors about bees, chickens, and who is growing what. We share plants, seeds, and advice. It is absolutely lovely.

Peas! Always the first thing to go in the ground here. I let the kids plant them this year, which I initially thought might have been an ill fated decision when the seeds didn't seem to be sprouting according to the expected timeline. But they are starting to come up now, so I guess it will work itself out. Even if they are not necessarily in the tidy little rows I might have imagined.

In the years that I have been living in New England, I've found that Fedco is a good seed company to go with here. They are in Maine, so the seeds tend to do well in our somewhat challenging climate and their shipping is timed well for the tragically short growing season.

Beets, lettuce, kale, carrots, and fennel have all started to sprout in the days since I first took these garden photos, so provided that all continues to run smoothly here on the blog, I'll be back to share more of that soon. Planting potatoes this afternoon!

Comments

And...We're Back!

So. That took a bit longer than expected. Being busy with things like chaperoning middle school trips to our nation's capitol and what not, I wasn't super on top of what was happening with the whole Typepad fiasco. But when the blog was still down this morning when I tried to post, I finally decided I should email and complain a bit. And, what do you know... It's back up!

I'd been wanting to share a bit about my new spring garden and have been meaning to get in here to do it for the last few weeks, but I think we all know that my appearances here are sporadic right now. Dawn and I have been working away on the book, on posts for Mud Puddles to Meteors, and then there is all the full-time job and parenting stuff to be on top of too. But we did manage to get a garden going in our new backyard, which I am very pleased with.

The raised beds that we built are very basic; just some 2 x 6 lumber cut to the proper length and held together with wood screws. We had a truckload of soil delivered to the yard on a weekday afternoon a couple of Thursdays back, and then spent part of the following weekend moving it into the beds.

I picked up some onion sets from a local produce market and started out by planting about two-thirds of them. I gave the rest to a neighbor, who has a garden bed just on the other side of our fence. Our house is on a very busy street in an urban neigborhood, with buses and other traffic going by in a steady stream pretty much around the clock. But you almost wouldn't know that from the state of affairs out back. Our yard has a short chain link fence on three sides, and on two of those sides there are neighbors with gardens as well. The guy to the side has a flock of chickens and is a professional bee keeper (raising queens for sale) with a couple of hives in the yard. To the back is an older Greek couple with a garden just a few feet from our own. In the evenings, we often stand in the yard and chat with the neighbors about bees, chickens, and who is growing what. We share plants, seeds, and advice. It is absolutely lovely.

Peas! Always the first thing to go in the ground here. I let the kids plant them this year, which I initially thought might have been an ill fated decision when the seeds didn't seem to be sprouting according to the expected timeline. But they are starting to come up now, so I guess it will work itself out. Even if they are not necessarily in the tidy little rows I might have imagined.

In the years that I have been living in New England, I've found that Fedco is a good seed company to go with here. They are in Maine, so the seeds tend to do well in our somewhat challenging climate and their shipping is timed well for the tragically short growing season.

Beets, lettuce, kale, carrots, and fennel have all started to sprout in the days since I first took these garden photos, so provided that all continues to run smoothly here on the blog, I'll be back to share more of that soon. Planting potatoes this afternoon!

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